Morphology

Shannon Schleif

This is a board game similar to others but with a unique twist - a roll of the dice determines how you will proceed. We tested it out during a slumber party with my older niece and her friends, and it was a riot.

To play you decide to use either the easy or hard words. We chose easy, and you pick and guess the word on the card before the time expires. Every round, one person is chosen to be the Morphologist. The Morphologist is the person who must describe or build the word for his teammates to guess. If you guess correctly you proceed to the next lily pad. The first team to the lily pad wins.

On the lily pads are changes which increase the difficulty level. There are three types of play on the lily pad. One pad had normal play, one had the pick 3 play and one had the roll play. If you land on the pick 3 pad, the opposing team picks which three pieces the building team’s Morphologist can use to build the word. On the roll pad, it gets interesting. Once you roll the die, there are six more changes to the game. Either everybody can play, or there is an open round where the team who doesn’t have the turn can advance. It affects how the Morphologist of the team who currently has the turn can build the word. This is where the game becomes more difficult as ingenuity and imagination come into play for both the Morphologist and his teammates. It is a lot of fun because you are trying to guess a word using abstract concepts.

I would recommend this game for adults or children 13 and older for the easy game as this is who we tested it on. The difficult version would be for adults only as the words and phrases are more complicated. Please note that this game contains many pieces to build a word and must be used creatively. Some of the pieces include colored stones, wood, string, blocks and popsicle sticks. You must have a sense of adventure and fun to play. Make sure you are ready to have a lot of fun, and good luck. This game has received many awards including Time magazines #2 toy of 2010 and Dr. Toy best vacation products winner.